Pakistan’s finest women writers — Jamila Hashmi, Mumtaz Shirin, Fahmida Riaz, amongst others – introduce us to the compelling cadences of a rich literary culture. A naive peasant is left with a white man’s baby; a frustrated housewife slashes her husband’s silk pyjamas a middle-class woman sees visions of salvation in the tricks of circus animals…Equally at ease with polemic and lyricism, these writers mirror the events of their convoluted history – nationalism and independence wars with India, the creation of Bangladesh, the ethnic conflicts in Karachi — in innovative and courageous forms. Influenced both by the Indian and Islamic traditions of their milieu and by the shocking impact of modernity; they are distinguished above all by their artistic integrity and intellectual honesty.
ISBN: 0863565778
Publisher: SAQI BOOKS